County of Cuyahoga v. Budget Commission

89 N.E.2d 456, 152 Ohio St. 351, 152 Ohio St. (N.S.) 351, 40 Ohio Op. 377, 1949 Ohio LEXIS 363
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 14, 1949
Docket31963
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 89 N.E.2d 456 (County of Cuyahoga v. Budget Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
County of Cuyahoga v. Budget Commission, 89 N.E.2d 456, 152 Ohio St. 351, 152 Ohio St. (N.S.) 351, 40 Ohio Op. 377, 1949 Ohio LEXIS 363 (Ohio 1949).

Opinion

Taft, J.

The reason given by the Board of Tax Appeals for its decision was that the budget commission *354 had no power or authority to allot any of the proceeds of such taxes to appellant for the construction of new building's. Whether this reason is sound depends upon a construction of the statutes providing for participation by appellant in the proceeds of such taxes.

By Section 5625-20, General Code (122 Ohio Laws, 166), provision is made for participation in the proceeds of classified property taxes, collected in the county, by the board of trustees of a public library, on compliance with certain conditions. By Section 5625-24, General Code (115 Ohio Laws, 591), * the budget commission is given authority to fix the amount of the proceeds of such taxes to be distributed to each board of public library trustees, to each board of township park commissioners, to the county, and to each municipal corporation. This latter section provides that the commission shall be guided by the estimate of the county auditor as to the total amount of such taxes to be collected during the year; and, as to the shares thereof distributable to municipal corporations and to the county, by the provisions of Section 5639, General Code (119 Ohio Laws, 222). *

Section 5639, General Code, provides for the distribution to the various political subdivisions of amounts of such taxes allotted to them by the budget commission. Provision is made first for one-fourth of one percent to the state of Ohio to provide a fund for administering the system of assessing.such taxes. Otherwise, with one exception, the basic intention expressed by the General Assembly is that such taxes shall go back to the localities from which they came. Thus, municipal corporations get back only amounts out of taxes “originating therein” and the county gets back only amounts out of taxes originating in territory of the county outside the limits of municipal corporations. Any amount which a board of .township *355 park commissioners gets is taken either from the share of the municipal corporation, if the township park district is located wholly within a municipal corporation, or the share of the county if it is not so located.

The one exception relates to the amounts allotted to boards of public library trustees. Irrespective of the location of the libraries, such amounts are deducted pro rata from the shares that would be otherwise distributable to municipal corporations and to the county.

A consideration of the foregoing statutes discloses that a definite guide has been set up with regard to allotments and distributions to the county and to municipal corporations. No problem with regard to allotments and distributions to township park commissioners is present in the instant case. These statutes, however, furnish no guide as to the amounts to be allotted from the proceeds of such taxes to boards of public library trustees.

This court has, however, held that such allotments shall be made by the budget commission according to the relative needs of the libraries and other units entitled to share in the distribution of the proceeds of such taxes. Board of Education of Cleveland Heights v. Evatt, Tax Commr., 136 Ohio St., 283, 25 N. E. (2d), 453.

Appellant claims that the needs of a library should be satisfied before consideration be given to the needs of other units entitled to share in the proceeds of such taxes. However, this court has held that, while libraries are entitled to priority over others in the distribution of the proceeds of such taxes, they are not entitled to any priority in the allotment of the anticipated proceeds thereof. Board of Education of Cleveland v. City of Shaker Heights, 137 Ohio St., 597, 32 N. E. (2d), 11.

The right of any library in any year to “participate in the proceeds of classified property taxes collected *356 in the county” is expressly conditioned by Section 5625-20, General Code, on adoption by its board of trustees of “appropriate rules and regulations extending the benefits of the library service of such library to all the inhabitants of the county on equal terms.” (Emphasis ours.)

The General Assembly obviously believed that only a right to equal benefits of a library’s service in all inhabitants of the county would justify distribution to that library of taxes collected from all inhabitants of the county. At the time this provision was made for libraries, the General Assembly knew that there were many located in districts whose boundaries were not coextensive with the counties in which they were located and in districts representing a relatively small portion of the county. The General Assembly also had before it the decision of this court in Friedlander, Treas., v. Gorman, Pros. Atty., 126 Ohio St., 163, 184 N. E., 530.

Nothing in Section 5625-20, General Code, prevents the subsequent change of the “appropriate rules and regulations” required of such a library where it desires to participate in the proceeds of classified property taxes collected in the county. Consequently, such a library could, after such participation in a particular year and if it did not seek such participation in subsequent years, change those rules and regulations for subsequent years so as to deprive the inhabitants of substantial portions of the county from equal benefits of its library service. If, therefore, the appellant’s contention is correct, appellant could secure $800,000 from the proceeds of classified property taxes for the year 1949 for buildings which should last for 50 or more years. While we do not believe that appellant has any intention of doing so, nothing in the statutes as written would prevent appellant in subsequent years *357 from depriving many of those inhabitants of the county, who had paid in taxes substantial portions of that $800,000, from use ‘ ‘ on equal terms ’ ’ of the buildings for which they had in effect paid.

Appellant can do this and, if it did, then the intention of the General Assembly, that no inhabitant of the county should be taxed to support library facilities if he had no right to use them on equal terms with each other such inhabitant, would be defeated. We do not bélieve, therefore, that, in view of its expressed intention that no one should be taxed to pay for library facilities he had no such right to use, the General Assembly could reasonably intend that proceeds of classified property taxes in a particular year might be allotted to a library for construction of buildings that would have a useful life of many years. If it had so intended, we believe that the General Assembly would have specifically provided either for such an unusual use of current revenues for payment in full for such buildings or would have specifically provided that buildings constructed with such funds should be open to all the inhabitants of the county on equal terms, at least during the useful life of such buildings.

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Related

Board of Trustees v. Budget Commission
306 N.E.2d 422 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1974)
Cleveland Public Library v. Cuyahoga County Budget Comm.
261 N.E.2d 117 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1970)
County of Montgomery v. Budget Commission
160 Ohio St. (N.S.) 263 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1953)
Village of Indian Hill v. Atkins
93 N.E.2d 22 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1950)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
89 N.E.2d 456, 152 Ohio St. 351, 152 Ohio St. (N.S.) 351, 40 Ohio Op. 377, 1949 Ohio LEXIS 363, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/county-of-cuyahoga-v-budget-commission-ohio-1949.